Seeing Through Shadows

Mar. 23, 2013-Apr. 21, 2013

---

Araki Nobuyoshi, Moriyama Daido, Suda Issei

 

Text/ Gallery 100

It is photography that connects overlapping points in time and space, releasing the experiences that are concealed in ordinary objects and making them fragments of the world. These fragments contain their own secrets and after intersecting with the memories of others reveal a unique viewpoint other than realistic documentary. “Seeing Through Shadows” showcases works by three artists - Araki Nobuyoshi, Moriyama Daido and Suda Issei - whose works are a testament to the way photographic art was repositioned and faced new challenges in Japan from the end of World War II to the 1970s. These artists made a definitive break with the pre-war photographic tradition which mainly sought to mimic the aesthetic meaning of painting. In contrast, they used photography to express instinctive responses to life experience in an era of dramatic change. As a result, they and others gradually developed what American photography critic John Szarkowski (1925~2007) called “Neo-Japanese photography,” which focused more on the individual style of “snapshots.” Araki has said: “Without jealousy it would be impossible to take pictures” and his works reveal a passion for life. From blooming to wilting, flowers express the artist’s pursuit of passion and emotion. That includes every loss and victory of self-awareness, as well as the inevitability of life and death. The works of Moriyama are imbued with a powerful visual language and personal style. The randomly captured and low-resolution images ensure his works are informed by a sense of gravitas, but also replete with emptiness. Through the transition from black to white the artist takes snapshots of the dialogue between light and darkness in the human soul. With distinctive body of work in photography, Issei tends to take pictures of daily objects in which he searches for the existence of extraordinary possibilities, using such items as substitutes for self-reference. The soul of objects is then extracted and falls apart, but simultaneously brings away the stories about photographer, concealed beyond and scattered around the space-and-time.